Govt to rope in retd specialist doctors to overcome shortage

Hoping to meet the requirement of specialist doctors in the public sector health system, the state government has decided to recruit retired specialist doctors up to the age of 65 years. The step is expected to bring in around 1000 such doctors into the system.

Last week, Principal Secretary, Health, Praveer Kumar issued an order which said the appointments will run for a year. A three-member committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of Director General, Medical and Health, to select the retired doctors to be appointed under the arrangement.

The terms of those appointed will end as soon as the public service commission resumes regular appointments. The specialist doctors so appointed will not be given any administrative post and they will not be paid pension for the period.

At present, Uttar Pradesh has 16,283 posts sanctioned for doctors, against whom 10,422 have been appointed, while the remaining seats remain vacant, said Dr Sachin Vaish, General Secretary, UP Provincial Medical Service Association. The state has around 3,600 doctors as specialists, while the rest are MBBS doctors.

Dr Vaish, however, pointed out that the decision to appoint retired doctors might not prove very successful as not many senior doctors would want to work under their juniors.

“However, if the government is able to recruit even 500 specialists, it will be a very important achievement in the process of improving the health service in the state.”

Dr Vaish said that these retired specialists will work as a stopgap arrangement until the time the first or second batch of provincial medical service doctors have completed their post-graduate courses.